Seasons
SEASON: 64 | YEAR: 2012
HEAD COACH: DAVE SHAMA
Game 784 | January 10, 2012 | Don Lucia, Brad Frost
Lucia's men's team made it to the Frozen Four in 2012 for the first time since 2005, losing 6-1 to Boston College in the semi-finals. The team won the McNaughton Cup (best record in the WCHA) for the third time in the last seven years and finished with a season record of 23-14-l. Frost's women's team won the NCAA Championship for the third time in the history of the event. Megan Bozek and Amanda Kessel were both named All-Americans.
(LtoR) Dave Mona, Don Lucia, Sarah Erickson (physician), Brad Frost, Dave Shama
Game 785 | January 27, 2012 | Jamey Carroll, Danny Valencia, Cory Provus
One of the last remaining veterans of the late Montreal Expos, Carroll, who turned 38 during the year, was signed as a free agent by the Twins before the 2012 season. He played in 132 games, splitting his time at second, shortstop and third, while batting .268 with 40 RBIs. Valencia, who appeared to have won third base with a strong second half in 20ll, struggled early, was sent to Rochester and finished the year in the Boston Red Sox organization. Provus, who most recently teamed with Bob Uecker in Milwaukee, succeeded John Gordon as the play-by-play voice of the Twins.
Game 786 | February 7, 2012 | Gov. Mark Dayton
In the early days of the Legislative Session, Dayton talked about what it would take from the team, the community and the Legislature for the Minnesota Vikings to finally secure funding for a new stadium. His scenario played out in mid-May as a $975 million stadium bill was approved by the Legislature with the state, city of Minneapolis and Vikings as partners.
(LtoR) Dave Shama, Mark Dayton, Ralph Strangis (physician), Dave Mona
Game 787 | March 7, 2012 | Mark Rosen
Speaking days before the official release of his book, "Best Seat in the House," Rosen shared some of the highlights of working in the WCCO TV sports department for some 40 years. The popular sports anchor shared insights into how he got the job while still a teenager and of his favorite memories, including the victory of the United States hockey team over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid.
Game 788 | March 20, 2012 | Dave Stead
Stead, executive director of the Minnesota State High School League, was joined by several guests who represented some of the best moments in 100 years of state basketball tournaments in Minnesota. Dean Verdoes talked about his legendary 1960 Edgerton team, Minnesota's version of "Hoosiers." Ken Novak Jr. discussed the recent dominance of a series of boys teams from Hopkins High School. Lisa Lissimore recalled the early days of the Women's Tournament and her winning St. Paul Central team.
Game 789| April 12, 2012 | Ron Gardenhire, Terry Ryan
Ryan was back in his old role as Twins General Manager, and Gardenhire was returning for his 11th year as Twins Manager. Ryan talked about the signing of free agents Josh Willingham, Ryan Doumit, Jamey Carroll and Jason Marquis. Suffering from a lack of quality starting pitching the team finished with a 66-96 record, 22 games behind division leader Detroit.
Game 790 | April 24, 2012 | Dr. Eric Kaler
The 16th president in the history of the University of Minnesota, Kaler told Dunkers he saw no reason the University could not excel in athletics as well as academics. He acknowledged that athletics served often as a front door to the entire University and said he had focused much time recently on the search to find a person to succeed Joel Maturi as Director of Athletics. He then introduced the person chosen to arrive in mid June as the new AD, Norwood Teague.
(LtoR) Dave Mona, Norwood Teague (physician), Eric Kaler, Dave Shama
Game 791 | May 1, 2012 | Rick Spielman
Speaking just two days after the completion of the NFL draft, Vikings' General Manager Spielman said the team was pleased with its two first-round selections, offensive left tackle Matt Kalil from USC and Notre Dame safety Harrison Smith. He also said that running back Adrian Peterson was ahead of schedule on his rehab from extensive knee surgery. He said the team, under the leadership of second year quarterback Christian Ponder, should be substantially improved from its 3-13 record in 2011.
Game 792 | May 22, 2012 | Harvey Mackay
A Dunker member for nearly 40 years, Harvey talked about growing up in the Twin Cities and how he built his impressive list of contacts. He told stories about famous people he has known including those who are in his books, and how he built his series of New York Times best sellers.
Game 793 | June 26, 2012 | Maya Moore, Devereaux Peters, Alan Horton
As the defending WNBA champions, the Lynx were heavily favored to repeat in 2012. Horton, the team's play-by-play voice, asked Moore to share memories of her recent Gold Medal as a member of the U.S. Women's Basketball Team. Moore, the WNBA Rookie of the Year in 20ll, once again made the All-WNBA team as the Lynx recorded the league's best regular-season record before losing to Indiana in the playoff finals. Peters, the team's first-round draft choice out of Notre Dame, played sparingly on the veteran-dominated team.
Game 794 | July 24, 2012 | Leslie Frazier
On the eve of his third season as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, Frazier said he believed his team was much better than its 3-13 record in 2011. He talked about an unusually high number of injuries and a schedule that had most of the games against division rivals in the second half of the season. He added that the team had confidence in the placekicking ability of draft choice Blair Walsh who took over from Ryan Longwell, one of the NFL's top kicker'S for the previous decade.
Game 795 | August 2, 2012 | Lanny Wadkins
In town to compete in the 3M Championship, Wadkins talked about changes with golf clubs, balls and courses during his career. He won the U.S. Amateur in 1970 and was the PGA Rookie of the Year two years later. He may be best remembered for his three-hole playoff victory over Gene Littler to win the 1977 PGA Championship at Pebble Beach.
(LtoR) Dave Mona, Tom Duffy (physician), Lanny Wadkins, Dave Shama
Game 796 | September 19, 2012 | Kelci Bryant, Lindsey Berg, Amanda Smock, Hugh McCutcheon
Minnesota was well represented at the 2012 London Olympics. Bryant, a two-time NCAA champion diver for the University of Minnesota, won a silver medal in the 3-meter synchronized diving competition. Berg, who was in Minnesota to be inducted into the Gopher Sports Hall of Fame, was the setter on the silver medal-winning volleyball team that lost to Brazil in four sets. Smock, a star athlete at Melrose High School and North Dakota State University, did not earn a medal in the triple jump. McCutcheon, who had coached the U.S. men's team to gold in 2008, turned his attention to the U.S. women's team in 2012 and was about to take over as head coach of the University of Minnesota women's volleyball team shortly after his Dunker appearance.
(LtoR) Joel Maturi (physician), Kelci Bryant, Dave Mona, Dave Shama, Hugh McCutcheon, Lindsey Berg, Amanda Smock and Dad
Game 797 | October 2, 2012 | Jerry Kill
Entering his second year as Gopher football coach, Kill said his team was going to be one of the youngest in the Big Ten with many sophomores and redshirt freshmen counted on to fill key roles. He said he was hoping for an injury-free year from his fifth-year senior quarterback, Marqueis Gray. Unfortunately, Gray was injured early and Kill had to turn to freshman Philip Nelson at quarterback. The team earned its first post-season bowl appearance since 2009.
Game 798 | October 18, 2012 | Tubby Smith
As he moved into his sixth season as men's basketball coach at the University of Minnesota, Tubby needed only nine victories to reach 500 in his career as a head coach. Coming off a runner-up performance in the NIT, Smith said he had high expectations for the 2012-13 team. He said he would bring Trevor Mbakwe back slowly from knee surgery, but that he expected his team to do well in a rugged Big Ten that had five teams ranked in the early-season AP top 25 teams.
Game 799 | November 1, 2012 | Thomas Friedman
A life-long friend of Dunker Sid Hartman, the Pulitzer-Prize winner, best-selling author and New York Times columnist took questions for an hour on topics ranging from growing up in St. Louis Park to the outlook for peace in the Middle East. He promised to return to Dunkers and ended with a story about his favorite hobby, golf. According to Friedman, some of his friends ran into professional golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez and asked him if he recalled who had caddied for him in the 1991 U.S. Open at Hazeltine National. Rodriguez smiled and said, "Yeah. Tommy. Tommy Friedman." Did you ever think at the time that he would grow up some day to be even better known that you?" they asked. "Not in Puerto Rico," he grinned.
(LtoR) Dave Mona, Tom Friedman, Sid Hartman (physician), Dave Shama
Game 800 | November 8, 2012 | Pam Borton, Rachel Banham
Banham, the Big Ten's Freshman of the Year in 2011-12 and a preseason first-team All Big 10 point guard, had just been cleared to practice after doctors found a blood clot in her lung. Coach Borton, entering her 11th season, said she had high expectations from sophomore Micaella Riche, and that the team was looking forward to January when they would be joined by a 6'5 recruit from the Swedish National team, Amanda Zahui B.
Game 801 | December 4, 2012 | Don Lucia, Brad Frost, Zac Budish, Beth Brausen
Both hockey teams entered the season ranked number one nationally and both got off to great starts. Guest forwards, Zac Budish and Bethany Brausen, both juniors, talked about playing against both strong opponents and high expectations. The men were 11-3-3 at the time of the meeting and the women were 18-0. They had scored 104 goals while allowing just ll and had been behind for only 39 seconds so far.
Annual Meeting 2012 | December 11, 2012 | Sid Hartman and Dave Mona
A cross section of leaders in the local sports community shared the latest updates on what is going on with them and their programs. Each year this is one of the best attended meetings. Dunkers thanked Dave Shama for his strong year as Head Coach and welcomed Bob Hagan who will take over those responsibilities in 2013.